Err0r:833
by DevilsFemaleChild
Summary: In a post apocalyptic AU, 413 is just another robot. Untill the day something different happens. She finds herself in a situation she never thought possible, and the possibility's seem endless. Now there is now way to go, except to find the truth. But she starts to wonder, does she want to know the truth? Some shipping, but not the main point of the story
1. Chapter 1

I lay there, motionless, ready to receive the orders of my life. These would be all I existed for. I was rigid and stiff, listening intently for the next words that would soon rule my life.

"413: Up" I heard the command, it was strongly and forcefully given.

I sat straight up, at a perfect 90 degree angle, and waited for the next command.

"413: Attention." At this, I opened my eyes for the first time and whipped around to look my commander right in the eye. He was a tall, muscular man. He had long, very straight brown hair. He was in a white lab coat, decorated with a lone, blue Sagittarius sign. The room was completely white. In fact, something told me it was too white, and that it should be blinding my eyes and hurting. Especially since I had just opened my eyes, but I pushed the thought away. My eyes were superior in every way to humans', but humans hold supreme reign anyway. This fact was never to be debated or argued. Not even contemplated. This person was my master.

"413," my master said, "You are to report to block A400. You're programmed to listen to us. Will you fight this fact?"

"No." My voice was monotone. Dead. I heard no emotion behind it. But I doubt I could even sense emotion if there had been any. Emotion was primitive. Below me.

"Good." He smiled slightly, A tiny smirk, then left the room to talk to someone behind the doors.

I heard the words being spoken. I knew I probably shouldn't be listening, but he never said I couldn't listen either.

"The operation was a success," briefly I wondered what operation, surely some kind of military one, "This one was closer to death then the others, more dead than anyone else. But likewise, more loyal."

Loyal? What is this word? What does it mean?

Within seconds I saw words fly by my eyes.

_**loyal |ˈloiəl|**_

_**adjective**_

_**giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or institution: he remained loyal to the government | loyal service.**_

Loyal. I knew what that word was. I was loyal.

"The accuracy of this advancement is going up by unmeasurable rates. The testing should begin soon."

I let this sink in. Testing? Oh well, it was not my department.

"Very good, motherfucker. You take your orders well!" I heard an odd sounding voice chuckle out side. "As long as we have plenty to spare, it should be all good, bro."

This man did not sound very professional, unlike the setting would set him up to be. I found this slightly odd but pushed the thought aside. It didn't matter how their system worked. They were all higher then me.

In a few moments, the first man came back in. He told me his name was Dr. Zahhak, and that whatever happened, he was higher than me. I didn't mind. I knew this. Then he had me stand, and test to see everything was in working motion. My joints were fine, I found moving them a breeze. He sent me to find my block, and I found it right away. I was preprogrammed to know where it was.

I entered the block and got to my spot. I looked around at the others around me. They all looked different. Boys, girls, big, small, dark skin, light skin; they all were there. The only consistent thing were the eyes. The red eyes with the slight hint at circuit board behind it. I found it odd, we had skin? I looked down and wondered briefly if I had skin. I did. The thought fluttered up on how I hadn't noticed before. It was tanish, at one point, but now it was very pale. I looked at my hair. It was a long curly mess that was very dark brown. I heard the call attention and instantly me and everyone else went to their spots and looked up to the front of the room, when a boy walked in.

At first I thought it was odd such a young boy was here, but soon realized from his white lab coat and his huge glasses that he worked here, and probably was a lot older than he seemed. He smiled a huge, buck-toothed smile, that some may say was adorable, but I didn't know, nor did I care. He had big, blue eyes, and an odd little drop of some kind of green slimy goo on his shoulder. It almost looked like a worm of some kind, the shape it was in. He looked around to us and waved hi, but nobody moved a muscle.

He cleared his throat, and began to speak, "Hi! My names is John Egbert, as most of you know, I'm in charge of this station! We have some newbies, but they'll get the hang of this pretty quick! Basically, you just hang 'round here all day unless you are needed for something. If you don't like something, let me know! We're not supposed to do that, but I can't let you guys be too uncomfortable while you're here! Make sure you talk to us about these things, and don't get any bright ideas about running away. Outside of here, there is nothing. Be happy you can exist here! Your schedules will be updated in your softwares through the charging station tonight, so don't worry about that! You'll always know all you need to know! And for the new people, you don't actually have skin. That's a new filament, to make you more real looking. So don't get too many wrong ideas!" Well, I guess it didn't really matter if I had skin or not anyways.

"That's it. Any questions?!" But of course there were none. He looked a bit uncomfortable for a moment, before smiling again. "Good! That's Good! You're dismissed!"

I entered the room where I would be staying. There were two charging stations against the wall. It was a dark, almost cell like room, not that I minded. There were no windows either. There were few other furnishings, besides some chairs and a small table. A girl sat there. She had light brown hair, almost dirty blond, and an odd smirk on her face. She was a little different from the others I had seen. One of her arms was entirely robotic for some reason, and so was one of her eyes. She had kinda light skin, but it looked tan from what was probably more than its fair share of sun.

She looked at me and grinned, "Why, if it isn't the newest of the newbies?" She laughed at that, then gestured to the seat across from her. I took it cautiously, because I didn't trust her. Something about her just rubbed me the wrong way. I believed this would be the closest to an emotion I would ever have. The closest hate as well.

"So you got a name? I can keep callin' ya Newbie if you want," She said with a grin.

"413." I replied.

"Nice. Interesting combination of numbers. Not as great as mine." She flipped her hair then, and my disdain for her grew.

"What's your number?" I asked, because she probably would appreciate me going around calling her Bitch just as much as I would with being called Newbie.

"88," She said with a smile. "They give numbers in order of when you're made. I was lucky enough to come at the right time to get such an amazing number."

She then had a huge, almost evil-looking leer, as she said, "Never go against me in a game of chance. I have allllllll the luck!" The way she held out her 'all' bugged me. Something told me that if she had typed it, there would be 8 L's. I didn't respond to her statement.

88 sighed, "Well, you're a real snooze now aren't you," she yawned, "Boooring! I was hoping for an awesome roommate! But instead, I got an emotionless one. Damn." She sighed, and gave me an odd look. To her dismay, I did not react.

"Ugh! So lame!" She looked genuinely mad, before sighing again, "Oh well. At least you're not the worse case scenario. Not to mention I coulda been stuck in a block with a freakazoid head doctor." Her sneer was back again, "Hey! I guess I did score pretty good didn't I?"

"Yes." I agreed with her, hoping she would shut up.

88 smirked again "John's a pushover. You can get him to do anything. But in general, he's a pretty cool guy I guess. And theoretically, I could have one of those lame ass beta losers as a roommate, but I don't." She looked at me in an almost harsh way. She obviously didn't realize how annoyingly selfish she was.

But that last sentence interested me, "Beta types?" I asked.

For a second she looked at me curiously, then suddenly started laughing, "Oh! That was a question! Oh my god! You need to let some emotion through that mask, or I'll never understand a thing you say!"

After she had gotten control of her laughter she said, "Hehe.. yeah... The _beta_ kids." Her laugh was gone now, a cruel snarling like expression. She spat out the word "beta" like it was a disease that she could catch just by thinking about it. "They're like, the original versions of us. But there full of like, flaws and bugs and stuff. It's _disgusting. _Everything about them's just... wrong! I hate them! I mean, bluh!" She shivered, too. I doubted everything she said already, and right then I decided that these "betas" probably didn't do anything to her but be lower than her. Not as good as her. Existing.

Well, I'd be the judge of that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! First authors note, yay! Thank you for people watching this! i just wanted to warn you that the plot seems to move to fast in this part but its important it happens like this so please don't freak out! Yeah. Ok. thanks!**

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I spent the next few weeks in block B, doing as I was told, and charging at night. 88 hung out with me a lot, for some reason, she was positive we were friends.

I hate her.

One day, while we were sitting and 88 was telling me about something, I heard a number called. We both looked to the front of the room to see number 266 walked to the front of the room. She was a really sweet girl, I had talked to her once or twice. Her skin was a little more tan than 88, and dark, almost black hair. Actually, she looked a lot like John. If she hadn't been a robot, I might have assumed they were related. Siblings even. She went up to John and smiled at him. This seemed to make him really uncomfortable, and maybe if I had been better at emotions I might have seen the twinge of sadness on his face, before his usual big grin.

"Hey J-, 266! We just need you to follow me, there's a little testing we want to do." He smiled at her then.

She smiled back. "Sure John, I'd be happy to help you!" He led her out of the block, and an uncomfortable silence filled the room, not that I minded. But suddenly the whole room filled with hushed and panicked whispers.

"What's going on?" I asked 88, figuring she'd know. When I turned to her, she looked genuinely scared, for the first time I had ever seen.

"They're calling people now." she said, "According to someone here who talked to the betas, that's when things started to fall apart for them. They went through some testing, calling people into the room, as they called it. Every beta called in didn't come back out. The few beta kids left were going to be the last ones called, but they realized it was futile and started making alphas. If there calling us now, who knows what could happen!"

I rolled my eyes at her, this was just a stupid rumor. I doubted there was actually anything 266 was going to do. They were probably just checking her joints or something like that. Obviously, 266 didn't look scared. She didn't even believe the rumors herself. I had nothing to worry about.

The terrible tension that radiated around the room wasn't enough to make me nervous, until 266 came back.

That's when I started believing the rumors.

She had a few bandages, though why I don't know. We were robots. It's not like we could heal if we could get injured. Her eyes were wider than anything I had ever seen, and even I couldn't miss how thoroughly frightened she was. Multiple people asked her what happened, and she just kinda shivered and ignored their questions. She didn't respond to anyone. It wasn't long before she silently got up and went to her room. John looked a bit upset when he came back in, and the silence that always happened before he spoke was different this time, way more tense. Everyone prayed silently to not be called.

Except me, of course, I remembered how odds worked. There were hundreds others in this block. What would be different about me?

"413."

That.

I got up, and moved my way to the front of the room.

"It's your turn," John said with a very fake smile, "No worries. It's not so bad." He turned to walk away, knowing I knew exactly what to do. Follow him.

I turned and glanced behind me. Everyone was staring at me, the poor girl who went second. I saw 88 for a sec, she just looked at me, almost seeming a bit regretful, and offered a slight wave goodbye.

Damn. I'll never tell her how much I really hate her guts.

I turned and followed John. He led me into a room that looked similar to the one I woke up in, even though I was positive it was not the same. I sat there waiting, when another doctor entered the room. He was very tall, and rather thin, and had unusually dark skin. I felt like the term was "African", even though I really didn't know what that meant. His dark hair went everywhere, and there were a few strange indigo marks all over his lab coat.

"Hey there, sis!" He said with a chuckle. I realized this was the man who was talking to Dr. Zahhak when I first woke up. The one that was unprofessional. I waited patiently to see what it was he would have me do.

"This is just some testing. It won't go too badly!" he said, when a wild and insane grin overcame his face, "If there are some motherfuckin' miracles to save you!" With that, He brought out a club and swung it hard in my direction.

Without even thinking, I raised my hand to stop the club. He pulled back and swung at me from the other direction. I stopped it again. He started wailing on me as hard as he could, there was no strategy or pattern. Just brute force. Everytime I moved merely to block the weapon from hitting me, he seemed to get angrier.

"Am I supposed to let you hit me?" I asked, confused on how he wanted me to react.

"Fight me!" He screamed, "Fight me like any other goddamned robot in this whole motherfuckin' place would!"

"But you are higher." I said. It wasn't confusion as much as laying down the facts. It was true.

"Do it!" he practically screeched, "Do it now!"

I shrugged. If that's what he wanted me to do, I would do it. On the next swing, I grabbed the club rather than block it. I twisted it out of his hands, and in the same movement, I twirled it up and caught it when the hilt was facing towards the ground. I then effortlessly switched hands so it would be in my right, and brought it down hard towards his head. He stopped it, and looked at me with a devilish grin.

"Finally." he said. With that he attempted to kick my legs out from under me, and the real fight began.

It was thrilling, it made me feel powerful, and right. Fighting him made me feel as close to happy as I would allow myself to get. The fight was easy, but it was neither of our goals to destroy each other. I was hesitant to hurt him, since still he was higher then me, and he didn't want me destroyed either. I assume it was for a lot less noble reason, however.

After the fight went on for exactly 30 minutes, he suddenly stopped, and commanded it as well.

I stopped instantly, since it was a command, but to be honest I missed the feeling of fighting.

He smiled at me, told me I had passed, and that I was under strict orders to not tell anyone at all what had happened. I nodded, and realized this was the real reason 266 didn't say anything. She knew not too.

They let me out, and when I arrived back at my block, it was dead silent. I felt lots of eyes on me, wondering what had just happened. Without a word, I walked to my room. That would be the end of that as far as I was concerned, and all of them would know what happened eventually.


	3. Chapter 3

**hey guys! yet another update wow. I've had the first few chapters done for a while now. So Whenever I feel like posting them XD But any who, yeah. Thank you so much for reading this! It really means a lot. I'm just warning you when the time comes that i run out of chapters to post I'll start begging for advice so tell people XD Cause I'll be stuck. Enjoy!**

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After a few weeks everyone had gone through the test, as we now called it. 88 thought that 266 was just a wuss, and that's why it had scared her so bad. I was developing different theories, thinking that it might have more to do with how similar she was to John, even though I had no idea how the two things could be connected.

Life was normal again, no one freaked over their number being called, since it was no longer a big deal. I wish it hadn't been the same with 88, since passing swelled her with more pride than I thought possible. She seemed even more obnoxious than before, much to my annoyance. She wouldn't stop gloating, stating often how easy the test had been and how she had been expecting so much more.

Then came the day we were allowed to leave the blocks.

We were herded outside, and I saw thousands of the robots come out. From all the blocks. They put us in our order, however I have no Idea how the order worked. It ended with 88 right behind me though, in an ironic and annoying twist.

After they had us do some drills, very few that were not hard at all, they told us to "socialize", though I had no interest in doing so. I looked around, and saw the high barbed fences. I wondered what the fences were for, because no one had any desire to leave into the nothing beyond. Maybe there were some kind of creature out there, that sometimes tried to get in. I didn't know nor did I care.

88 walked up to me in her sassy way, earning my normal mental twitch of annoyance. And as usual, I didn't let her have the pleasure of knowing it.

"First time outside, huh? Bit lame, I think. If I had my way, we could leave the fences!" She said. I just rolled my eyes.

She frowned at me, "Well, why not? It's not like we couldn't protect ourselves from anything out there!"

I glared at her, but most likely it came across as more of a stare, "If there was any reason are even any things out there, they'd let us out."

Still frowning, 88 shrugged. "Guess thems the breaks", And I was pleased to have finally gotten a point through her thick skull.

88 wandered off, claiming there was something she had to do, though I doubted that. Not that it even mattered. I looked around some more, to get used to my surroundings, and saw a scientist overlooking the entire yard. I had a feeling he was in charge. He didn't look particularly happy, with reddish brown hair that was partially slicked back, and a purple streak down the middle. He was pale with many freckles, and he looked a little familiar to me. I had probably seen him around. His random scarf that clashed horribly with his labcoat was blue and purple, and sitting besides him was a big, odd looking gun. He had no use for it, it seemed he kept it around for intimidation. If you were scared by that kind of thing, that is.

As I stared up at him, he glanced down and noticed me staring at him.

"Hey, you!" He called, and I gestured to myself to make sure he was referring to me, which made him roll his eyes.

"Yes, you! The particularly peasant-y lookin' one! Get up here!" He snarled and pointed to the stairs.

Nobody gave it a second glance, obviously this man doing something like this was common place. I wondered if I was peasant-y looking, before I stopped. That thought was stupid. I continued my way up the stairs to meet him.

When I got up there, he gestured for me to walk closer, so I did.

"You're new here, aren't you?" He asked me, I just nodded.

"Let me give you some advice... Don't get any ideas," He glared at me, and I was slowly getting the idea that he might not be the best or nicest of the doctors here.

"If you do anything out here, anything abnormal, I will know. All the idiots here think you're gonna be useful. That's not the feeling I get from you. I think you're gonna be a pain that's not worth the time. That's what I think about everyone of these pathetic... abominations. If you so much as make one move against anyone or anything in this place..." He held his hand threateningly up, as if he would strike me. I had an instinct to flinch, but I fought it. I wouldn't feel any pain if he did anyway, it was a worthless threat.

"Got it newbie?" He snarled.

I nodded again, then walked back down. That guy was just a load of hot air. But it seemed as if he was honestly worried about what would happen if I did something I wasn't supposed to outside. Why did he care? I had no desire to do anything I wasn't allowed to whatsoever.

When I got back down, I realized I hadn't seen 88 for a while. Too long of a while. For some reason, I knew she was up to no good. As I turned to find her, I heard behind me a small whimpering cry of some kind, and a familiar obnoxious laugh. When I looked, I saw a circle forming around where I assumed 88 probably was. I made my way over slowly, trying to pick up information from what I could hear.

"What's the matter, B-483, Spider got your tongue?"

"Uhh... No..." I heard a voice I never heard before say cautiously.

"That's good. Spiders are way too amazing to touch lowlifes like you!"

"Um, well, uh..."

"Speak up or shut up, beta" she snarled, and I was almost close enough to see through the now thick circle. Quickly, I tried to find the spot where I could force my way through.

"I, I don't think you're really allowed to talk to me like this... I-I mean, I'm pretty sure..." He said hesitantly, and the sheer innocence of his voice for some reason compelled me to save him.

"Talk to like what, B-483? Like you're a stupid waste of space beta robot that shouldn't exist? I see no reason to not take things as they are!" She cackled again, and I was slowly seeing her even more for the witch she was. No, more like thief. Just a thief of his light, the light being his self esteem.

Finally I could see the carnage. As expected, there was 88, looking rather high and mighty while bullying this poor boy. I saw him for the first time too. He was very tall, with very tan skin and dark hair, Indian-like, almost. He had his hair shaved into a mohawk, and just by looking at him I could tell there was something different about him. He would twitch sometimes, and just didn't look very strong at all. He was very thin, and they way he moved was rough and pained-appearing. So this was a beta, when they hadn't perfected robots yet. Somehow, this only added to my anger towards 88 for harassing him.

"B-but... Um..." He was scared, and for good reason. Even I had to admit 88 looked rather terrifying. He went to meet her eyes, which caused her to glare, and his sight dropped again.

"That's what I thought! Ok, since you're a little slow today, I'll help you spell this out. What did I say last time we were out here?" She said, with venomous sweetness dripping for her voice. I was so close, just a few more people to push through...

"That, that if I messed with you'd again you'd um... Um..." He looked really frightened, "Rip my legs off of my body?" He asked.

Oh no.

"Exactly!" She said with false cheeriness, and with that, she kicked his legs out from under him, grabbed one out of the air and snapped it with both hands.

You could hear the crack, it rang throughout the camp. I saw pain fill his face, as he gripped his now broken leg. It was the last straw; in a burst of fury, I broke through the crowd and ran in between 88 and B-483.

"Leave him alone!" I yelled, and I could tell she was shocked. Within moments her eyes narrowed, and she was back from momentary prey to permanent predator.

"Get out of the way, 413," She growled, "This has nothing to do with you."

"I won't let you make fun of him just because he's lower than you. Not as high tech as you. However you want to put it. He's been through a lot. Way more than you, so take my advice," I got really close up and leaned into her face, but she didn't back down, "and leave."

She growled at me, "Fine. I will leave. But this isn't the last time we'll be outside, and next time, I'll make sure you won't be in my way." She twirled around and stomped off. She didn't back down, oh no, she just bought herself time for an ultimate plan to be thought of.

I turned to B-483, and kneeled down next to him.

"Are you ok?"

He nodded, but from the pain in his eyes, I could tell he wasn't. Gently, I examined his leg. When I touched the part she had snapped, He whimpered a bit, so I knew it had hurt. She had snapped the support underneath his skin filament thing, and it was a dirty snap. Not clean and smooth.

"We could get someone to look at this, maybe they can help you..." I started, Looking around for help.

"They probably won't."

"Won't what?" I asked.

"Help me."

I looked down at him, and wondered why, when I remembered. He was a beta. They had destroyed the rest of them in the test, there was no way they'd keep him around when they destroyed perfectly fine ones with no problems.

"I will make them help you," The words came out of my mouth before I could register them. How? How on earth could I do that? But the look he gave me settled my determination to do just that.

"Really!?" He was shocked that anyone would do that.

"Really," I confirmed

"Why?" he asked, "Why would you do that? Others have told me I should just stop existing, and stop charging myself at night... I've, uh, I've thought about it too..."

"Others probably hope I would stop charging too," I said, glancing at the guy from the balcony, who I could see from here was giving me a dirty look.

"Really? Uh, If you don't mind, why do they not want you to... uh... charge?" He asked, obviously scared of hurting my feelings.

"I don't really know," I answered honestly, "They think I'm different, for some reason. I don't think I am though."

B-483 looked up at me, and said "Uh, well, I think you're different from the rest of them. I-I mean, 88 always done stuff like this to me, But no one's ever bothered to stand up for me before..."

"Well, they should. It's just the right thing to do"

"There's no such thing as the right thing to do anymore."

This shocked me, and part of me whispered it's true.

"Well, since we both have those who wish we'd stop charging," I said, "we can stick it to them and charge together. Like... like Team Charge." I wondered what about this boy made me want to help him so much, but something did.

He smiled, and nodded. I helped him up and he kinda winced as he tried to put weight on his bad foot. It didn't work. So I let him lean on me instead. He felt weak, and shaky as I lead him to the door, where a doctor helped take him inside. Silently I prayed this wouldn't be the last time I saw him, but on the inside, I wasn't sure.


	4. Chapter 4

I went the next week or so with no one talking with me, since no one but 88 really did and things between me and her were tense. Not that I minded though. The silence was nice, even if the constant glaring from 88 made me uncomfortable sometimes.

Out of the corner of my eye, one day, I saw her walk up to John. The way she talked to him was different, she seemed clingy, almost. She leaned in a different way, and sometimes would wind her hair around her finger. If I had known better at the time, I might have noticed she was flirting. However, John clearly didn't notice either. He talked to her the same way he talked to everyone else.

This time, 88 was facing away from me, and they were too far away for me to her them. How ever I was still curious, so I attempted to read there lips. John being the only one of the two facing me, I could only read his. Nothing happened for a while. Just idle chitchat. 88 asked a longer question a few minutes in, however, and it made johns usual bright smile fade, and his face pale slightly. He looked around as if to make sure no one could here, not noticing me, and mouthed 'He's dead'

88 suddenly seemed happier and lighter, and said what I can only assume was a goodbye thank you, and left John as she walked into the ground. I started wondering who was dead, and who they could possibly be talking about. I didn't think as hard as I should have, the answer was spelled out for me.

That night, when I was setting up my station, 88 walked in. I was expecting this, we still had to share a room, it was what she did that threw me off guard.

"Hey roomie," She said with a grin as she sauntered her way over to me, "What's been happening lately?"

I didn't reply, I gave her a suspicious look instead. She just kinda laughed.

"No need to get feisty! Look, I've been thinking over this, and I realized how silly this all is! I mean, it was your first time outside! Obviously you were gonna make mistakes, and I reacted too quickly! No biggy! You couldn't have known not to get in my way, so I'm gonna let this slide. Just this once. I mean, you are my roommate and all. So, can we let bygones be bygones?" She held her hand out to me, A peace offering. I was hesitant to take it. Just hours ago she would have gladly ripped my throat out, she couldn't have gone soft so soon.

Hesitantly, I reached for her hand, waiting for the sudden attack so I could be ready for it. It never came. The second my hand touched her hand she grabbed it and gave it one hard shake before letting go with a smile.

"Great! See ya' round!" She called as she left to do whatever it was that 88 did when she wasn't with me.

I couldn't get the odd encounter out of my mind. What could have happened to make her change so much? Nothing. Nothing but an event to make her feel like my mistake had somehow been avenged. What though?

As I got to my charging station, I picked up the little inserting piece that we put in little holes in the back of our neck to charge. As I fingered it in my hands, I suddenly put all the pieces together.

It was obvious. It was so obvious what had happened yet I completely missed it. No I hadn't missed it, I was just too ignorant to believe that it could really happen like that.

I wanted to cry, but I didn't. 88 would think I was weak. But that's not all. If this proved to me anything it was that if you weren't strong, you wouldn't survive. even if they just thought you were weak. I couldn't cry, but I could be disappointed.

I was disappointed in them for pushing off an "issue" That they could clearly handle. I was disappointed in 88 for taking news like that, like this. But mostly I was disappointed with myself.

_I didn't keep my promise to him. _I thought as I plugged the charger in and settled down. _Which is the worst of them all._

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**I know, short chapter I'm sorry. I wanted to write more but it felt like this needed it's own chapter. I didn't specifically say what, but I hoped it was spelled out. If you didn't catch what happened message me and maybe re-read. To make up for it, though, the next one's a big chapter so PREPARE YOURSELF.**

***PS if this made you sad I'm sorry, and if you cried I'm extra sorry here's a tissue***


	5. Chapter 5

The next few months went by with no event. Some new people came through, and had their testing done. Some people came up with new games. There were people playing some of them every few feet. It got incredibly boring. I didn't particularly like any of the new games. 88 got into one, but I don't remember what it was called.

I grew more restless throughout the dragging months. Part of me wanted something exciting to happen, but the calmer part of me didn't want excitement to "cross a line". I silently wished for something different, something new to do. But when I remembered we would eventually go outside, I relaxed yet again. That would be enough to refresh me for a while alone, and I soon realized this was probably the reason they had set that up in the first place. To keep us from getting too bored.

Finally, the day came when we got to go outside. Even I could tell 88 was pleased. As we once again filed outside, I took a deep breath. I hadn't realized it before, but there was something exciting about going outside.

"Hey," 88 whispered on our way to our spots, "What do you think's out there?" She gestured towards the fence, and I knew she was continuing our first conversation from last time.

I sighed, "Nothing. Exactly like they told us."

"Obviously, that's not true. You can see the trees and bushes through the fence clearly!" It was true, there was a forest just beyond the fence.

"It probably doesn't go far," I countered.

"I think they're hiding something. Something they don't want us to know about," She said, "I think, that whatever it is, You and me could take it."

"You're not seriously planning on going out there?" I asked.

"What if I am?" She countered in her sass filled way, "Would you go with me?"

"Of course not! That's insane!"

"It's not like we couldn't handle anything!"

"We would get ourselves killed before we got 5 feet," I argued.

"Where's your spirit of adventure?" She asked. I knew it was meant to be a harmless sentence, but something about it stirred my insides. Like a forgotten memory. Which was impossible, I remembered every second of my life. No one had ever said that to me, but still.

"Not out there, that's for sure," I said as I recovered from the moment of, quote unquote, "deja vu".

"But you could still find it out there!"

"I'm not going, you're not going, that's final." I said.

"Whatever, Mom," she said with a roll of her eyes. I let her have the last words, because for the most part, I was sure I had won that battle.

But of course, There was still the war to be won.

As we got to our spots, I turned around one last time to glance at 88, who winked at me. I just rolled my eye's and turned around. Once again, we went through the drills, then waited for the dismissal to "socialize".

I sensed motion behind me as the the formation broke. I turned around, expecting 88 to be there, once again walking up to me in that arrogant way, but did not get that. In fact, I didn't see 88 at all, I was confused as to where she went, until I saw something that shocked me deeply.

The fence was right behind us.

There was a gap in the fence, barely big enough to squeeze through.

And through that gap, were plants swinging in an unnatural way, as if someone had ran through them.

Instantly I looked to the weird guard doctor, but he had his attention elsewhere. I knew I shouldn't have taken my eyes off her! Damnit 88!

There was only one thing left to do, I had to bring her back.

I ran through the gap and pushed my way through, and luckily no one noticed. I sprinted through the forest, searching for obvious trails of 88, but I couldn't find any. I wasn't built for this type of thing, tracking and being in the forest, so it became much more difficult. After running for a while, I slowed down, and instead of trying to catch up with her, trying to think what 88 would have done. It was obvious. She would search for some big monster that she could destroy.

After pondering where she might have gone, A thought struck me. How far had I gone?

As I turned around to see merely more forest that all looked the same, a more important thought struck me. How was I going to get back?

I hadn't just ran straight, I think I made a few turns. Did I? I wasn't sure. I was completely lost. I wondered if 88 was realizing the same thing, wherever she was. I hoped she was sorry, but knowing 88, she probably wasn't.

Maybe, if there was really nothing out here, there was an edge? If I kept going, maybe I could find an edge. I started sprinting through the forest again, hoping to find this edge I had to hit eventually. Right?

Pretty soon, though, I tired. The sky had faded from blue, and was currently a deep pink. I wondered if I could even sleep without charging. For that matter, how long could my batteries go without charging? I wracked my brain to see if I could remember anyone saying. I felt like one person said a few days, but I didn't know for sure. The thought scared me, but at least if I rested, it might last longer. Not knowing what else to do, I climbed a tree, and as the stars came out, I attempted to sleep without charging for the first time. It worked.

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**Yay! Moving the story along! SO yeah, This too was gonna be longer, but I split it up because it was too long. In my opinion. So half! yeah. And thank you people for all the support! ^^**


	6. Chapter 6

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed, but in a different way. I couldn't quite put my finger on it though, so I ignored it.

I climbed down from my tree, And continued on my quest for the supposed edge. I wasn't in a hurry like yesterday, because the panic and frenzy of the moment had passed.

As I walked, I wondered what I would do if I even found the edge. What was the point? Then I remembered. Logically speaking, they would probably have put the compound in the middle. So if I found an edge, I knew to turn directly around and go straight. A simple plan, put it would work.

However, A surprise happened that stopped that plan entirely. As I was walking, I felt something around my foot. I looked down and saw a rope, it had been hidden underneath the leaves. I yanked my foot to get it undone from the rope, but instead it pulled the rope across the ground and Rang some bells.

It was a trap.

As fast as I could, I dodged out of the way of the falling net I knew was coming, which it was. I sprinted away since the bells had gone off. Someone heard and someone was coming.

I didn't get far before I felt sudden weight on my back which took me off guard and knocked me to the ground. I attempted to roll over and face my attacker, and was shocked at what I found.

A small human girl was straddling me. She had short, somewhat tangled curly hair that was caramel in color. She had a little bit of freckles, and olive green eyes. Her hands were clenched in a way that resembled paws, and they were pressed against my chest. I assumed by the way her stance was that it had not been a battle attack, merely her admittedly odd way of greeting me.

I couldn't process what I was seeing. A human. Outside. There was nothing out here. The only humans were the doctors. They told us so! But this girl was very young and clearly not a doctor! Why was she out here? Who was she? How? How? How?

My confused mind raced through thousands of possibilities. None of them fit the bill, or matched with anything the doctors told me. I was so shocked, I couldn't say anything. So she did.

"Who are you?!" She asked, "I haven't seen you around here before! You must be new to this area! Where'd you come from?" The new questions came out of her mouth before I could answer older ones. Her higher voice was tainted with curiosity, and the way she rolled her r's reminded me of a cat.

"You're... You're human." I said. I was still processing this fact, and could not believe it. Was it a trick? Was this the so called monster 88 was going about? Maybe they were shapeshifters. What would I know?

"Of course I am, you silly! And so are you!" on you, she slightly pawed at my nose once.

"No," I said, denying her false accusations, "I'm not."

She frowned slightly, "Yes, you are! I'm positive!" The way she said positive made it sound like 'pawsitive'.

"No, I'm a robot." I instantly regretted the words, why would I announce something so stupid? Her ignorance could be my advantage if this were to come to a fight.

Luckily though, she just giggled at me, "No you're not, silly! Can robots bleed?" She laughed.

I frowned, that wasn't exactly a connected question to the situation, "No."

"So you're not a robot!" She said, proud to have shown me how to put two and two together. She didn't realize her answer was 5.

I didn't say anything for a long time, her logic confused me greatly. Maybe that's why she wasn't a doctor, were most humans idiots?

"What," I finally managed to say.

"Robots don't bleed! So you can't be a robot! See?" She said, as she gestured to my leg.

When I looked down, the first thing I saw was my long skirt. I had never been too focused on clothes before, though most of the people in my block wore different things. My skirt had been ripped, probably in the fall, and at first that was all I noticed. Then I saw it.

I had shifted just enough for the hole to reveal my leg. There was a scrape, not big and painful, just enough to bleed a little. I was shocked, because she was right, robot's don't bleed.

That's what they had always told us.

But they also always told us there was nothing out here.

Why would they lie? Furthermore, should I even believe this human? I was told all human's rule was greater than mine, but did she count as a human? She obviously wasn't from the lab. Do I listen to her?

The confusion that was started from this simple sight was sending my mind reeling. So much was changing and was now questionable that had been rock solid before. It felt like this small human had unintentionally turned my robotic world upside down, and may have shown me how un-robotic it actually was.

I couldn't handle it anymore, I finally pushed the little girl off my chest and ran. Maybe I could have another chance, forget this happen, get back to the lab, and live life how it had been. Well, except for 88 being with me 24/7, but giving her up was a sacrifice I was very willing to make.

I was so focused on sprinting through the forest, watching my feet, I ran into something. I tripped and fell on my stomach, and I rolled over to see what I had tripped over and knocked to the ground.

A girl lying on her back, probably pushed over in the fall, had tilted her head back to look at me. Her hair was very blonde, almost white, and her eyes were a pink, almost purple, color. They were made more brilliant by her pale skin. She crossed her arms sarcastically and smirked at me.

"Well, well, well, _someone_ was certainly in a hurry," she said, "Mind if I ask why?"

I couldn't speak. Another one? This time I felt frozen, I simply couldn't respond.

"Oh, going nowhere, are we? Or has a cat gotten your tongue?" She asked.

Again, I still didn't say anything. I was just too shocked to process much.

"Rose, I have that-" Another girl walked into the scene. She stared at the odd positioning of me and the girl, who was evidently Rose, and she too was shocked.

This girl had short hair, it was styled close to her head. It was a deep brown, and her skin was the color of mocha. Her lips were naturally a dark red, and she was rather pretty.

"Rose... What are you doing..." Her words were were smooth, and she focused a lot on pronunciation.

"Oh, Kanaya, I'm having simply the loveliest conversation with this fine young woman. I'm sorry, through all your words I didn't quite catch your name. What did you say it was?" She sarcastically put her hand up to her ear, to hear the reply.

As you may guess by my previous patterns, I didn't reply. I simply sat there. I probably looked like an idiot, but I was too terrified to care.

Kanaya raised her eyebrow at me, questioning what it was I was doing there, when the final straw walked in.

"You guy's have to be fucking KIDDING ME! We have jobs to do to stay alive, in case you haven't noticed! I don't know about you, but I'd prefer not starving to death and dying before 25?! Sound good?! Do we have a fucking deal instead of standing around like fucking ignorant shit buckets?!"

A small, angry looking fellow walked in. He had black messy hair that was facing every possible direction, and by the looks of it I would assume he didn't sleep much. His eyes were a bit odd, a bright red color, but it didn't freak me out like it should. If anything, I felt something comforting and familiar about the color. I assumed it was because it was a similar color to the red in robots circuit board eyes. He glanced at Kanaya, then the odd position Rose was in, then finally at me.

"Who the fuck is this," He said, "And what are you all even fucking doing."

"Karkat, you're making a bad impresion on our guest!" She said, I was starting to think she might use sarcasm all the time, "We wouldn't want to give name The idea that we're foul mothed burgalers, would we?" With this she sat up and gestured towards me.

"I don't give a flying fucking shit what " name" Thinks! Who the fuck is she anyway!?"

"What is your name?" Rose asked, with genuine curiosity, only I wasn't 100% sure she could say anything genuine.

After a few more stunned moments, I took off into the woods in a final feeble attempt to turn around and forget this ever happened. But my luck was against me, and I ran right to a cliff. I was trapped. I turned around, and the 3 people walked towards me, through the forest.

I was breathing hard now, I had never been so absolutely terrified in my whole life. I couldn't focus anymore, Everything was just a crazed rush. For the millionth time, I have the thought that maybe its a dream, that it isn't real. But in my heart I knew it was as real as I was.

"Are you ok?" Kanaya says, and before she can walk up to me, Rose gestures for her to stop.

"Kanaya, she's obviously horrified about something. What's wrong?" She asked me, and before I could answer the small girl from earlier burst through the forest.

"Oh Rose! Are you doing that therapist thing again!?"

I was startled, even more than before. My eyesight got blurry, for the first time in my life, and gravity pulled me to the ground. Right before it went completely black, I heard a cry from someone watching me.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey! I'm sorry I don't update often, I think I explained the whole "Now I do chapters then post" Thing. Anyway, yeah. Questions will start to be answered over the next few chapters. Not this one as much, but it will happen! Promise! Bye!**

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When I woke, I couldn't remember what had happened. I sat up slow, and held my head, trying to remember why I slept. I looked down and saw I was wrapped in a tan cotton blanket. There was a tent above my head, and it looked rather old. And slightly reminded me of something a ragtag group of people might use. It looked like some sort of an office. Maybe an infirmary of some kind.

In a flash, I remembered what had happened. The people, the _humans, _that shouldn't be here. It didn't make my head spin anymore, I had come to terms with it. The doctors were pathetic liars, and I was determined to find all the things they lied about.

From the doorway of the tent like thing, I saw Kanaya walk in.

"Oh good, you're up," She said, "I was starting to think you might never wake up. You had quite the scare there, didn't you." She said everything like she knew it was a fact. Like the chance of her being wrong were slim to none.

She handed me a cup of water, "Drink."

I took the cup and gladly gulped it down. I could tell by the scratchiness of my throat I hadn't had anything to drink for a while. This sparked my curiosity, and I asked Kanaya the question that came up.

"How long was I out?"

She looked at me in surprise for a moment, before speaking, "I believe that exact amount was two days. You passed out, slept through all of yesterday, and woke up today, in the morning. Yes, two days." She did the math for me, and I nodded.

"If you don't mind me asking, we're all curious, What is your name?" She asked.

"413."

"That's- That's not a name. It's a number," She countered.

"Yes, but my number is 413."

She looked at me with confusion, "No one ever gave you a name?"

"I told you, they gave me a number. They gave everyone a number," I said.

"Who's they?"

I looked down in what probably came across as shame. Truthfully, I was debating whether or not to answer that question then.

"I'd prefer not to talk about it now."

"Understandable," Kanaya said. She stood up and stretched, before offering her hand for me to grab.

"Come along now, the rest of the group will want to know you're up," she said, and lead me out of the tent.

What I saw was a small, tight ring of four tents, including the one I came out of. It looked sturdy enough to offer shelter, while not so sturdy they couldn't take off at a moments notice if necessary. The only person there, was standing in the center. It was Karkat, the crabby boy from earlier. Now that I had time to study him, he was a lot shorter then I had thought. He couldn't be more than 5'2". He looked up at us in a grouchy way, and rolled his eyes at the sight of me.

"Oh good, take a look at that! Mrs.'I'm-gonna-randomly-show-up-and-just-pass-out- for-no-fucking-reason-and-freak-everyone-the-fuck- out' is up! Great, sleeping beauty, thought you'd never get up! While you happen to be moving and actually doing work, why don't you say something so life changing and scary we all have another heart attack, huh? There'd be no harm in that for sure!"

"Karkat, take it easy on her," Kanaya scolded, "you don't know what her life might have been like before hand." She glanced at me then, as if asking me to insert whatnot might have been like. To her disappointment, I didn't respond.

"Yeah, well, whatever," he turned to me, "Since you're gonna stay here anyway, what should I actually call you while you're here?"

"413," I said, prepared to defended my answer.

Karkat gave me a confused look, like he was about to argue or say some snark comment about that being a number, but received a look from kanaya that plainly said 'Don't go there'. He dropped the subject.

"If you wanna stay, you better make yourself useful!" He threatened before walking away. Kanaya shook her head in disapproval.

"I apologize for him. He's always just a bit crabby, but I promise he really cares more then he says. He's the one that yelped when you fainted."

That made sense. Karkat was one of those distant kind that thought having feelings would get everyone hurt, so he hid them by sounding annoyed and angry all the time. But it was just that, He was hiding them. When it came down to it he'd be on your side.

"Come on, Rose really wants to talk to you." Kanaya lead me away from the center and off a little ways into the woods. We came across a tree that was perfect for climbing. Up in the branches was Rose, who was reading a book while relaxing comfortably in a little nook in the branches.

"Rose, She's awake," Kanaya called up to her, and Rose looked down at us from her spot.

"Oh good! I was hoping you'd be up soon," She responded, as she climbed down the tree and landed softly in front of us. She smirked at us and nodded at Kanaya.

"You can go now, I promise she won't hurt me," I heard the same sarcastic tone as when I first met her, "No need to get protective."

She seemed to be hinting at something I didn't understand, which caused Kanaya to blush. She nodded slightly and walked away from the direction we had come from.

"Walk with me," Rose said, as she started off into the woods. I followed her as she asked. I figured I would want to know whatever she had to say. Something told me it was important.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"413,"

She gave me an odd, sideways glance, but didn't question my answer either.

"What were you running from when you ran away from me?"

Her questioning reminded me slightly of an interrogation, and I quickly figured out what was going on. She wasn't sure if she could trust me. If I answered well, I could have the secrets I wanted answered lying at my feet. I decided to go completely honest for the sake of this.

"I was running away from the small child. The one smaller than even Karkat."

Rose nodded, "Nepeta. She has issues with self restraint."

I nodded in agreement, I had noticed that about the small feline girl.

"Speaking of Nepeta, she told me something you said that was rather interesting..." She said, as if to let me finish her thought. For the first time, I did.

"I am a robot."

Rose let that sink in, "What makes you so sure?"

So I told her my story. Waking up in the lab, and everything the doctors told us. Most of what they had told us made her eyebrow twitch ever so slightly, giving me hints as to what things were true and what were not. I told her about the beta's, about B-483 and team charge, About 88, about 266 and her similarities with John, our testing, everything. I didn't stop until I had said every detail, and to be perfectly honest, I don't think I had ever talked so much in my life.

Rose was silent. She never once interrupted throughout the whole thing, and after about a minute since I had finished she spoke.

"I am definitely a person who appreciates a good story, and that my friend is one wicked cool story. Believable, however, is another level entirely. Do you have any proof of your story, that this isn't some hoax to harm me and my friends?

My hopes fell for a moment. How could I possibly prove it? When I remembered.

"My charging port," I said.

"What?"

"My charging port, remember? The place where I insert my charger?" I turned my back and lifted up my hair, and pointed to where it was, "See?"

I felt Rose's hands mess around with it a little, too make sure it wasn't fake. She then stopped and stayed silent for another long while.

"Is all this really true?"

"Every detail."

I heard Rose take a deep breath, "Well then, I guess this means we have some discovering to do. There is parts of this story that don't line up, but I believe you are telling the truth. It's lack of information, not lies, causing the riffs."

I agreed with her, because the more I thought about the doctors, the more they sickened me. They were up to something, but I didn't know what.

"I noticed something else, that may be proof of you being a robot as well."

I was confused, I didn't think I had shown much else, But I nodded and let her continue.

"Have you ever done something on a computer it wasn't expecting, so it froze for a moment?" I nodded, "Then to fix it you start hitting random buttons? But taking in so much information, the computer will shut down for a while. When you turn it back on, it's fine and acting the same as normal. Like nothing ever happened.

"It reminds me of what happened to you," She said, and the second I heard that, it made sense. That was very similar to what had happened, and I quietly began to appreciate her information gathering skills.

"Let's get back to the camp," Rose said, and together we headed off in the general direction of the site.


	8. Chapter 8

That night, under the dark night sky and the bright shining stars, the humans got together and made a campfire on which they cooked dinner over. "Dinner," being a relative term for a few birds they had caught in some traps. One of their traps had been what I was originally caught on.

As we ate, they told stories about what had happened to them that day. It was a light, cheery mood. Everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves. I found the spectacle rather odd, but enjoyable as well. They had obviously been together for a long time. Karkat kept making comments about how he was already the only boy, but then they had to go and add another girl. That made Nepeta giggle. Rose kept teasing Kanaya about things I didn't understand, but they made Kanaya blush.

After dinner, the mood took a darker turn. Karkat cleared his throat and said to me, "Look, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I think we all want to know what you're doing here."

Everyone went silent and looked at me, all but Rose, who instead stood up and told my whole story for me. I was impressed, she didn't miss a single detail.

Everyone was quiet, and all were digesting the information. Then Karkat's face turned to disbelieve, and he stood to speak his mind.

Rose spoke instead, "I know what you're thinking, I had the same thought, but she proved it to me."

"Like she couldn't have been clever enough to fool you!" Karkat yelled. I would have been offended by his doubtfulness of my story had I not understood why. It wasn't personal, he was protecting what was in his mind his family. How could you blame anyone for protecting something as dear as that.

"You know as well as I do it would take a hell of alot more to fool me," Rose said, and I didn't doubt a word of it.

Karkat grumbled and sat back down, his arguing over, at least for now. Something told me that until it was proved to him, he wouldn't actually let it go.

"So what are we going to do?" Little Nepeta asked, by far the most innocent of the group. Everyone else, including me, seemed to be about 18. She, on the other hand, Could not be more than 13 or 14 tops.

"I think we should find out more about what 413 was like before," Kanaya suggested, "We know that they were told it was filament so they could not bleed, but the fact that she does bleed puts into question whether or not their skin is actually filament. And if that's true, it's not the filament, then is it real skin? If so, Where did they get it?" Kanaya did some logic thinking for us, and it honestly got me wondering on the same things.

"Really, I don't think there is anything we could do right now," Rose said, with a shake of her head, "I'll think of things, but there's definitely nothing to do tonight."

After a long silence, I spoke up.

"I don't mean to pry, but now that my life story's out there, am I allowed to ask what it is you're all running from?"

"Who said we were running from anything!?" Karkat said accusingly, as fast as he could.

"It's rather easy to tell, with the shape your clothes," I said gesturing to their torn and fraying coats and pants, covered in dirt, "The way the tents can be moved easy, the fact that you _live_ in tents as opposed to permanent housing, the way you hunt for food every day, and finally the fact you especially seem bent on believing that I've come here to harm you all in some way. It's not too hard to put the pieces together."

Everyone was kinda silent, looking at their shoes or just in the distance in general. Rose said softly, "We're refugees, and it's, it's kinda hard to talk about sometimes."

Karkat stood up in a fit of fury, and marched into a tent that was evidently his. Rose sighed.

"Particularly for Karkat."

I looked around at everyone, and curiosity as to what they were refugees from burned in my mind. Rose swallowed and stood up with a stretch.

"Well, It's been a long day for everyone and I suggest we all just get to bed. We can talk more in the morning," she walked over to Kanaya and held her hand out. Kanaya grabbed it gratefully and together they walked into a tent.

That left me and Nepeta. She stood up to, and pointed to one of the two empty tents. Probably the infirmary one I had come out of. "That's your tent! Goodnight!" She said as her tiny frame went through the doors of the last one. I shrugged and put out the fire and went into my own tent as well.

Later that Night, after I had went to sleep, I heard a creaking near my door. It woke me up to a full alert, and quietly I demanded, "Who's there!?"

"It's just me," Said the small, high pitched voice of Nepeta, as her tiny head peeked into my door.

"Oh," I said, and after a moment of her looking uncomfortably down, I added "Well, come in I guess,"

"Thank you!" She squeaked, as she came through the flap. She sat down on the edge of my mat and sighed.

"...Are you ok?" I asked. I was not used to kids, and didn't know what to do in this situation.

"Well, not really. I had a nightmare," She said, and she shivered a little. I put my blanket over her shoulders to keep her warm.

"Thank you!" She said, gripping the blanket over her like a shawl, "I wasn't sure if this would be ok. When I woke up I was scared, and I wanted to talk to someone. But I knew Karkat would just get mad, and this is the only time Rose and Kanaya get to themselves, I didn't want to disturb them. So I came to you, I hope that's ok! I mean, we don't know each other very well but I trust you!"

Nepeta was talkative, I knew that from the moment I met her and she was still proving her point now. But there was something sweet about the little girl, so I let her talk.

"What was your nightmare about?"

"Oh, I just relived a memory from when I was little," she said quietly.

"What memory?"

"...The reason I'm here," she mumbled. Out of nowhere she started crying, and she threw her hands around me in a hug. "No one really knows or understands why, but there's a war going on! There's people with lots of machines, deadly machines, that come through everywhere! They kill everyone and everything in sight, and leave ruins of villages in shambles!" She sniffed.

I hugged her, shocked at what I was hearing.

"There's lots of refugees. You can hardly go anywhere without finding some! Some aren't even nice!" She cried more, and the tears streaming down her face.

"Is that why..." I started, but couldn't find it in me to finish.

"That's why we're here," she sniffled, "I came home one day, when I was little. I had been playing in the forest, I was just six years old! When I walked in, I saw my mom being lifted off the ground, held up by the neck by a big man. She was gripping, at his hands, and I realized she couldn't breathe.

"'What are you doing to my mommy!?' I yelled, 'you're hurting her! Stop it!'

"He turned to me, and dropped my mom on the ground. I ran over to her and hugged her, while she gasped for air. The man said, 'you are strong, little one. Quite the fighting spirit,' and he smiled at me, but his smile scared me. He was scary, so I yelled at him.

"'Go away! We don't want you here, we're happy!' I yelled, but my mom put her hand on my shoulder. 'Nepeta,' she said, 'run. hide in the forest until I come to get you, understand? Don't come out for anyone but me, not even daddy, ok?'

"'Ok' I said, and I stood up to get out, but the man stood in my way. 'Why should I let you go anywhere? I'm here to collect my subjects, and you seem perfect.' I don't understand what that meant, but I said, " if you let me go, I'll make you less scary' he gave me an odd look, before I pulled out a blue marker from my pocket. On his coat, I drew an arrow, with a little line threw it, I thought it would be cute. He looked at it or a moment, before he sighed.

"He said, 'I've always had a hard time getting rid of children. Go' he pointed to the door, 'and never come back to this place. I didn't see you here.' So I ran into the woods to hide, like my mom said. I waited and waited, but she never came. Finally I couldn't take it any longer, it was dark and I was hungry and cold. I got up to go back to my house, but when I got there," she paused, "there was nothing left. My whole village was wiped out, I was the only survivor. That man, I've always never been able to decide how I felt for that man. On one side he destroyed everything of mine and killed my mother. On the flip side, he saved my life because he hated killing kids. I decided against him a while ago. I was lucky to find Rose and Kanaya in the woods before I starved to death, and they took me under their wing. They were eleven."

We sat in silence for a moment, before I thought about Dr. Zahhak at the lab. I put the connections together to realize who it was Nepeta met.

"Thank you for listening to that, even though you didn't have to," Nepeta said as she sat up. She smiled at me, "You know, I don't care what Karkat says. I trust you, I think you're great!"

I shrugged, and said "No problem," as Nepeta smiled again.

"No really, thank you! I haven't gotten anything off my chest for a while, that really helped. I hope you stay with us!" She said, and she left my tent.

I sat there for awhile, thinking of the things I just learned. Karkat's distrust in me made more sense, since his loss seemed most recent. I wondered what happened to him, before I laid back down and went to sleep.

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**Ok, I swear, answers will come eventually! I hope this answered some!**

**I did get asked one question specfically, what happened to 88, and I have to say...**

**I don't know yet.**

**I'm have three ideas but I'm not really sure which one I like best, so I think I'm gonna set up a poll and see which ones the more popular option. I'll try to hide the results so it will at least not be a spoiler but no promises since I'm not the most tech savvy person ever. If I can't hide it and you click the results please don't blame me! Thank you!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys! SOrry this one took a while, I was debateing about whether or not to included some details in this, but in the end I went with it. They are on their way to answers! Also, I did the poll on my account, pleasepleaseplease vote! The next few chapters depend on your answers, so go do that please please please! I promise I'll do more now that it's summer and schools up, but if I don't know what to do I can't continue so PLEASE VOTE AUGH Ok I'm done enjoy!**

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The next few weeks went by with no real event. I learned how to hunt, and survive in the woods. What areas made good campsites, how to hide your trail from predatory beasts, and most importantly, how to track things myself. I got used to my daily chores, including getting water and checking and setting snares. Nepeta and Rose talked to me a lot. I talked to Kanaya a bit too, but not as often.

Karkat, how ever, was a different story. He tried to talk to me as little as possible. Based on what little I had gathered, this was very out of character for him. To not talk to someone so much. Rose assured me it was nothing personal, but I didn't mind. I knew I wasn't going to do anything to hurt these people, so eventually I would prove my worth to him.

The one thing about my chores, however, is they only lasted about half the day. I was left with nothing to do till dinner. I often wandered around the woods. I'm not sure what I was looking for, but I felt it was important. Maybe I was subconsciously still searching for 88, or maybe something else.

One time when I was wandering, I found myself about 1/2 a mile away from the campsite. Near me was a large tree, with odd markings throughout the whole thing. I got closer and saw they were words. One of the bigger set of words said "RoseMary", and underneath in parentheses, it said "(RosexKanaya)". I looked around it and saw other names put together like this in many combinations, a few of them I knew. I even thought I glanced at my name for a second. After standing in awe of this, I looked up and saw Karkat glaring down at me. He was sitting in the branches, looking very peeved that I had found his hiding spot.

"What are you looking at!?" He growled when I made eye contact, and I held up my hands in defense.

"What is this?" I asked him, hoping he would be willing enough to tell me.

"Nepeta's Shipping tree. When she meets people, she starts to pair them up in her mind with other people she met. Any people she really wants to date she writes their names together here. A fucking waste of time, if you ask me. There's so many more valuable things she could with her time! But noooooo, she has to spend time her making her stupid ships!" He answered.

"Oh," I responded, and I looked at all the names. Nepeta knew a lot more people than I thought. I wondered how many were from her old village. I wondered where it was I had seen my name, and who it was with. I knew none of these answers, and I probably never will.

"At least she refrains from putting my name on there too much. Haven't really spotted it, and when I do it's only out of the corner of my eye."

I nodded, even though I wasn't sure he was looking at me, because I had gone back to looking at the names. After examining a few more, I asked "How many of her ships are real?"

"Just Rose and Kanaya," He answered, and it shocked me.

"Those two are lovers?" I asked, and he looked down on me with a criticizing expression.

"You're kidding me, right? What are you, blind?! Of course they are! Haven't you noticed the way Rose flirts constantly?! Or how they sleep together?!" He yelled.

I shrugged, "Things like that are never that obvious to me," I said.

He just rolled his eyes and leaned back into his nook with a thud, "You're a fucking lunatic," He mumbled.

I glanced back up with him, and saw him fiddling with something in his hands. I looked back down and thought. I don't know why, but him not trusting me was starting to bug me. I looked back up at him, and did what was probably a stupid move, in high and sight.

Without thinking, so that I couldn't back out, I climbed up the tree so that I was sitting on a branch just behind Karkat's little nook. He wasn't paying attention, and hadn't noticed. I leaned up to him and asked, "What is that?"

He jerked and turned to face me, looking rather angry. "Hey there's this thing, called personal space? Ever hear of it? Yeah you just took mine, and I'd like it back please!" He said, and made a move to climb down the tree.

"You didn't answer me." I said, to keep him from going, "What is that?"

He turned to me and shoved it in my face. It was a mess of metal and different wires, "I found this and I'm trying to turn it into something helpful," He answered honestly, "Now stop talking to me,"

"I didn't know you were into computers," I said. He shrugged.

"Yeah, well, I kinda consider myself a hacker. Not that I'm really any good, not nearly as good as my dad was. He had barely started to teach me..." He trailed off then glared at me, "What the hell am I doing?! I don't have to tell you!" He shoved his "Technology" into his pocket, and settled back into his nook, leaving had been forgotten.

I nodded and we sat in silence for a minute. I looked up the tree and saw the ships again. They didn't go much higher before fading to none. I wondered how high they went, before turning back to the issue at hand.

After a while, Karkat finally said "Look, It's been bugging me forever, like, fuck I just gotta know, What do you want with us? How are you going to destroy us? And why?!" He gradually grew to yelling in his sentence, and now he was glaring at me.

"I've told you Karkat, I have no plans of harming you. It's the last thing I want to-"

"Fuck that," Karkat cut me off, "I've heard it a million times. You're trying to do exactly what he was trying to do! He talked to my dad, told them that the war was over and our village was safe, but it wasn't! He was lying! Afraid of that, and never trusting him, I ran away, and when I came back at sundown, he had killed everything that moved and burned everything else. Now I may not be able to get the others to not trust you again, but this time I won't sit pathetically to the side while you do your damage! I will keep my friends safe from you and you're terrible, lying kind!" He spat at me, and slowly, I wiped the spit off my cheek.

"...I wouldn't do that," I said, but he just snorted.

"Like hell you wouldn't!"

I just looked away, and I could practically feel Karkat fuming. For a moment, I doubted my own story which I knew was true. What if I did bring harm to these people that helped me? But I knew I'd protect them at all costs, and I shook the thought away.

"I'm leaving," Karkat announced. He climbed down from the tree and started off in another direction.

Before he was out of my sight I called, "I will prove it to you eventually."

"Try all you want, but you won't!" He yelled back and walked off.

I huffed and leaned into the tree. He was rather annoying sometimes, why I suddenly wanted his approval I don't know, but I wouldn't back down from a fight, challenge, and least of all a promise.

I looked back up at the trunk again, where the names faded from getting higher. I wondered how high they went again, and this time I climbed higher. Only a few feet up, the tree started getting less stable, on account of less trunk width and branches strength, and I no longer saw any names. A few branches higher and I stopped. Only Nepeta could get higher without falling of a broken branch, so if there were any more high I didn't know. It didn't matter because I didn't see any more ships, so they must have ended.

I looked down to see how high I was, when I saw carved in small printing on the very top of a small branch. There was no way anyone could see this from any angle unless they climbed up here so Nepeta must have wanted to hide it from prying eyes. I took a closer look to see what it said, and saw the words "OTP" And right underneath "Karnep (KarkatxNepeta)"

I felt like I had read her diary, I just found out what was blatantly obvious. Nepeta had a crush on Karkat. I felt bad for the little girl, Karkat made it clear he didn't return the favor. I wondered briefly if he had had a love in his other town, but I moved on, it wasn't my place to worry.

As awful as it was, I ignored it. If I forgot about it, things would be for the better. I climbed down the tree and decided I wouldn't bring up Nepeta's, and Nepeta's only, business. Not with anyone, not even her. I got back to the campsite, and again, went through the normal routine.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys! Glad to be posting again! I'm sorry I havn't been posting for awhile... but PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE VOTE IF YOU DIDN'T! IT'S NOT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANY OF THEM YET BUT VOTE OR I CAN'T DO THE NEXT CHAPTER! EVEN IF YOU DON'T CARE WHICH ONE HELP ME CHOOSE PLEASE VOTE PLEASE I NEED HELP. it's on my authors account. PLEASE EVEN YOU CAN'T CHOOSE JUST RANDOMLY CHOOSE SO I HAVE AN IDEA PLEASE.**

**Rants done, please vote, Thank you.**

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A few days later, and the shipping tree encounter had been forgotten. Things were normal, even Though Karkat's glares were picking up on the intensity level.

One day, I was checking some snares. I found a rabbit in one and I quickly pulled it out. As I was resetting it, I heard a snap of a twig behind me. I looked to see who it was and saw Rose.

"Oh, Hello! Sorry, didn't realize you had this snare covered already," She said with a shrug, "Catch anything good?"

I held up the rabbit and she nodded. "Guess it's feet weren't so lucky after all," She said with a smirk. She leaned into the tree and sighed. "But safety's more of a state of mind anyway. What do you think?"

I shrugged. I guess I hadn't really felt out in the open, except when I first found the group.

"Yeah, I know. If you really think about it, though, there's no such thing as safety. Just relatively being out of harms direct path. But you do what you can."

I hadn't heard Rose talk like this before. It was always snide comments, sarcastic replies, and eye rolling teasing with her. Nothing ever serious. But I guess everyone has a serious side if you know them long enough.

Before I could say anything, Karkat came running down the path, breathing hard. He was panting, and a look of wild fear in his eyes.

"Rose, I think you'll wanna see this!" He yelled. When I stood up to go to, he yelled, "No! You're the reason behind this, I know it! You stay here, or I swear to god I'll-"

"Karkat, let her come!" Rose snapped. Karkat looked really ticked, but he didn't argue. The three of us ran in the direction Karkat had come from.

When we got rather close, I could here this rumbling sound. It sounded almost like an earthquake, but I could feel no vibrations in the ground. Not to mention I wasn't sure this was an earthquake zone anyways. Karkat slowed and put his hands to his lips, signaling us to be quiet. Silently, he led us to some bushes, which Kanaya and Nepeta were also crouched behind.

"Look," He whispered as we silently peaked through the prickly leaves of the bush. What I saw terrified me. It was a parade of big, steal machines. The looked like death weapons, ready to mutilate the next village they saw. I looked forward and saw I couldn't see the front, or the back of the line. There were hundreds of em, all lined up. Head somewhere I didn't even want to think about.

"What are those things?" Kanaya asked, and I just shrugged.

"It's obvious she lead them here!" Karkat said as harsh as he could while still being quiet, "She gave away our position like I knew she would!"

"No, Karkat, these things don't know we're here. They have a different destination entirely, they don't seem to be lost." Rose said.

"But what can we do?" Asked Nepeta, who seemed the most scared of the big machines.

"We just have to change locations. We've been at this one a little too long anyway," Said Kanaya, as she gently put a hand on Nepeta's back.

"Wait..." I said, as I looked up towards where the front of the line was, "How long has this been going on?"

"Maybe five minutes. Why?" answered Kanaya.

"These things aren't that fast, the start of the line can't be too far ahead," I responded. Quietly, I went a few trees back, climbed up one, and start going through the branches tree by tree.

"What are you doing?!" Karkat said, getting up and running after me, "You'll get us all killed!"

"Not the plan," I said, and I continued my way up the line, "Just wait and see!"

I made it to the beginning of the things. The first one was just clearing down the forest in it's path, like making a road for the ones behind it. I made my way up a few more trees and carefully slid onto a branch that would soon be above the first one. Waiting till it was dead center under me, I jumped and landed softly on my toes, to not make a load clear thunk in the cabin below.

I looked to the second machine from the top. It had windows, but the captains were just messing around. They looked like doctors too me. I was lucky they didn't see me, I reminded myself to be more careful.

I examined the windows carefully, and saw there was a piece of metal that jutted out underneath it. After a certain pointed it'd be impossible to see the ground, not that it mattered with these monsters.

Now that I had a closer look, I could see guns attached about everywhere. I'd be willing to bet everything there were hidden ones everywhere too. I couldn't let the Doctors have as big of an advantage as these, so I would do as little as I could now.

Carefully, I lowered myself in between two side windows on the right side of the truck I was on. There was a safety ladder, which at the moment was to my advantage. I climbed down so I was at the bottom of the truck.

I started getting a little nervous, if one of the captains spotted me I'd be gone for sure, but I managed to ease my self under the truck. The wheels were high enough off the ground for my body to fit between the truck and the ground, and enough piping for me to hold myself up. carefully, I spun myself so my feet face the front of the machine and my head the back, and positioned myself in the middle of the truck.

The lucky thing about being with the doctors so long, I could now predict their moves. I found, as I expected, the main power source and main engine. Dead center. I used my fingernails and carefully unscrewed the sides of the protective barrier. I let the panel drop o the ground, and watched as it went behind me. I pocketed the screws so they wouldn't have those.

Behind the panel was the power source, but in a different way then I expected. Instead of a plain battery I found a cavern. I pulled myself into it, and even though it was dark there was just enough of a slight red glow from the heated metal to see.

It was the workings of the machine. However, I had now idea how it worked. Blindly, I pulled things out and ripped things up. Finally the engine looked broken, but runnable.

The key thing that made the engine grown the most was this little blue cap next to me. It started squirting oil and smoke when I had taken it off. I decided I would just take that from now on.

As I lowered myself back onto the belly of the truck, I saw tools out of the corner of my eye. I didn't know what they were or how they worked, but I snatched them and put them in my bag with the other screws.

Lying flat on the underside of the machine, I let go suddenly, and kept as still as I could till the next one rolled over me. When I was dead center, I again grabbed hold and held on.

Once again, I unscrewed the panel, but this time I pushed it inside. I leaned in and grabbed the blue thing, then again dropped. I went through the whole process twice more before I felt the line and all the trucks come to a halt.

I held my breath and held as still as possible, while men spilled out from all the trucks and ran to the front. Mine plan had worked, while they were puzzled over the first broken truck, I could break the rest of them and they wouldn't notice till they all eventually broke down. I didn't move a bit, waiting till no more stomping boots came, and all voices were ahead near the first truck. Then, I dropped and did my damage to the next truck and kept going.

There were more trucks than I had expected. My bag was getting heavy from all the screws. By the time I reached the end I'd say there had been about thirty trucks, and I ran off into the woods.

It wasn't long before I ran into Rose, Kanaya, Nepeta, and Karkat. They had their jaws dropped when I came up to them, so I took it they saw my little spectacle.

"Wow!" Nepeta squeaked, "That was... Positively awesome!" she practically purred as she jumped into my arms. "Those guy's will have a heck of a time dealing with you, huh?!" She yelled.

I put her down, "Thanks, but it won't be much longer before they figure out what I did. We better get moving and be as far aways from this place as possible when they do." As everyone turned to the campsite to pack and fly, I remembered.

"Hey, Karkat," I called, "Take this!" I threw him the bag. He opened it and saw the screws and the few tools I had time to grab, and his eyes widen.

Before he could say anything, I said to the group, "I'll be back, I just have to see something."

Rose gave me a sideways glance, but eventually sighed, "Fine. But remember because of your plan we have to leave as soon as possible, so you have to hurry too." I nodded and waited till they were gone to head down the path the death trucks had made.

I was just curious as to where they were coming from. I wasn't planning on going far, just seeing if it was nearby. I headed down maybe a mile or two before I decided to head back.

As I turned around to head back as fast as I could, I heard behind me, "Well well well. What do we have here? A runaway? Oh how sweet!"

The voice chilled me. I knew that voice, I'd now it from a mile away. Only it wasn't a mile away, it was right behind me.

"Speechless, as usual. Haven't changed a bit have ya? I guess I do have that effect on people still. I haven't changed a bit either! What do you think?"

I couldn't move. I had forgotten about her, I wasn't supposed to see her again.

"Well, turn around! Let me get a good look at you! See how much you've grown!"

Slowly, I turned around, and looked right into the cold, deadly, red circuit board pattern of her prying eyes.

"Nice to see you again, 413!" 88 Chuckled, "Now, let's get down to business, shall we?"


End file.
